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Broken Toe, Rambunctious Children, Shit Combination

I broke my toe
over Chinese New Year. It was the weirdest thing. Steve and I were sitting on
the couch and we noticed a flying insect. You don’t get too many flying things
in Singapore so it gets your attention. Then we realised it was a bee, but when
we looked up, it wasn’t just one bee, we had a swarm flying into our home.
Shite!

Up we jumped, I grabbed
the insect killer and ran around closing doors and windows. That’s when it
happened. Moving briskly out of our bathroom, I slammed my toe right into a
clothes rack with metal legs, and it hurt, like really really. But I had doors
and windows to close, so I kept going, and as I moved around the house, I
started saying ow, ow, ow, OW!! Oh my god it hurt. Toe stubs usually hit hard
and fast but then it goes. However this was different – it was a grower, and my word it blossomed into a
world of pain.

That was it – a fucked
toe – SO annoying! It got fatter and
fatter and fatter, and it wasn’t ‘til a month later I thought hey, maybe an
x-ray would be a good idea? That’s when I got that little photo taken to
discover I did, in fact, break it. On the mend now, but crikey, who knew how
much a toe could hurt? The reason I didn’t do anything about my toe is what’s
the point? Every time I’ve had anything foot related checked out by the doctor,
they just tend to look at you with a little shrug and say keep it up and ice it, that’s all you can do – right?

However my main
discovery of the experience has been how bloody vulnerable toes are around
children. We are fully accustomed to the culture of removing shoes when
entering our home in Asia. We actually quite like it and believe it will follow
us wherever we go, unless that place is cold and then we’ll wear Ugg boots. In
the meantime, bare feet and clumsy children – oh my GOD!

Jax landed a
beauty on my toe recently and the most common utterance in the house this last
month has been “watch my toe, WATCH MY TOE!” But they’re seven and eight right,
and there’s something spectacularly unaware in kids this age. They stumble
around, standing on your feet, hitting their dad in the nuts, smacking me in
the boobs, knocking things over, breaking things, and just creating unintentional
chaos. That’s a kid’s job. But who knew how often your toes were a battleground for children?

Well I do now and
I’m certainly looking forward to this baby healing – mainly so I stop panicking
every time my boys come anywhere near me. I’m also hoping it’s not going to be
one of those aches that curses me into my dotage. That’s definitely one of the
things you think about as you start getting crusty around the edges. One thing
for sure though, the next time the bees come, I won’t be so focused on their eradication. I’m not allergic, so who cares? A bee sting or two would have been
a lot nicer to deal with.

Ho hum, there you
have it. Anyone else in Singapore have a swarm of bees descend on their apartment?
Not normal right?

I grew up in country Australia, went to university in Melbourne studying music and ancient history, joined the Australian Army as a musician, entered the world of public relations, and then decided to head off around the world. That was 1995 and I'm still going, having lived in London, Boston, NYC, Thailand and Singapore - with a couple of short trips back to Australia in between. Singapore-based now, with an adorable husband and two rambunctious sons, my professional background is communication strategy and content marketying, with a focus on business and creative writing. My passion is people from all walks of life, and the amazing diversity of this extraordinary planet. I reckon life is pretty great, even though it can be crap sometimes too. I also blog extensively, with three blogs - my personal blog Without the Bollocks where I talk about life, my professional blog SAJE focused on all things communication, and a kids adventure blog for Singapore. Hey what can I say, I need to write!